Vellamo benchmarks your Android browser

Qualcomm has put together a tidy Android browser benchmarking tool aimed at both those developing in the industry and “enthusiasts”.

Knowing how much Android users like comparing numbers, we can see their new Vellamo app being a popular one-stop-shop for evaluating the web performance on various handsets.

The Vellamo benchmarking tool performs a number of tests on your mobile browser, including results for CPU and memory, JavaScript, HTML5, canvas rendering speeds and network access. It also addresses user interface, with tests to look at simple things like scrolling. So of the tests you may recognise - like SunSpider - and some are newly developed by Qualcomm.

Once all the tests are run, you are presented with a final graph and figure, the higher the number, the better the test score. A breakdown of performance in each test is also accessible, if there is a particular area of performance you are looking to address.

We ran the Vellamo test on a number of handsets we had lying around the Pocket-lint offices and here’s how the results broke down:

Motorola Xoom - 921

Samsung Galaxy S II - 917

LG Optimus 3D - 725

LG Optimus 2X - 655

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc - 623

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo - 574

Samsung Galaxy S - 542

Nexus One - 535

HTC ChaCha - 356

With all benchmarking it's important to understand what is being tested and that the results aren't absolute. We've run the test several times on a couple of these devices and seen slight fluctuation. But it's still an interesting measure of web performance and correlates to what you'd expect to see based on the device age or positioning in the market.

Remember too the limitations of benchmarking. This is a test in a controlled environment and not always directly transferable to the real world experience: the Motorola Xoom browser on our test device is extremely unstable, for example, which you'd never know from benchmarking.

If you’re a regular reader of mobile phone reviews, you’ll probably have seen a growing trend in reporting benchmarking figures. The most common application used is Quadrant, which measures CPU, I/O and 3D performance, and is being cited by more and more on reviews websites as an absolute performance measure.

By some coincidence, we sat down with Qualcomm earlier in the week where they told us that Quadrant wasn’t a valid test for dual-core devices, which many of the top phones are. Qualcomm themselves prefer benchmarking with tools such as Neocore, GLBenchmark, 3DMM and Nenamark.

Qualcomm chipsets sit in some of our favourite mobile phones, with their Snapdragon hardware powering many of the top-tier mobile phones available, such as the HTC Sensation.

Sharing this benchmarking app with other Android users is a smart move - it not only makes it easy to manage these web performance tests, but also helps raise the profile of a company looking to make a household name for itself alongside the likes of Intel and Nvidia.

Chris sits in the Editor’s chair, guiding the good ship Pocket-lint through the tumultuous seas of an ever-changing world of tech. Involved with Pocket-lint from its foundation, he’s best known for his critical eye and throwaway snark.